Rare storms rake state

MILLINGTON -- Some families in rural Tuscola County are standing in the rubble of their lives, grateful.

A tornado touched down in Millington and the Cass City-area, the National Weather Service has confirmed. Firefighters say they believe a tornado demolished a home near Deford and damaged others.

National Weather Service officials in Gaylord believe as many as four tornadoes, plus a water spout over a lake, may have touched down in Kalkaska, Cheboygan, Alpena and Mio.

"This is extremely rare," said David Lawrence, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Gaylord. "When you're this deep into the month of October, it's a very rare event."

National Weather Service officials said at least one and as many as five tornadoes touched down in Michigan. In Shiawassee County, seven homes were damaged.
The winds reduced a house to rubble at Barnes and Fulmer in Tuscola County's Millington Township, at the southwest edge of Millington.

Severe weather -- including tornadoes, strong winds and oversized hail -- pushed through much of the state late Thursday evening and early this morning, overturning vehicles, destroying homes and leaving at least one person dead in Kalkaska County.

Millington Resident Jeff Hawks, 38, went to bed believing the storm was over about 12:45 a.m. when he heard shingles coming off his house.

He took his family -- his wife, 6- and 10-year-old daughters and a 15-month-old son -- to the basement when his wife heard someone "screaming bloody murder."
They saw their neighbors at 5160 Barnes near Fulmer standing with their daughter, looking for their infant child.

Picking through rubble, they heard a whimper. As they became quiet to listen, they homed in on an overturned crib buried in "a thousand pounds of lumber" where the child was in a safe pocket under the crib's mattress -- which may have protected it from flying debris, Hawks said.

They unwrapped an electrical cord from around the child's neck, but it did not appear to harm the baby, Hawks said. They took the family to a hospital to have doctors examine the child.

MELANIE SOCHAN/The Saginaw NewsThe remains of a house lie along Barnes Road near Millington this morning after severe weather destroyed the structure. The residents, with help from neighbors, rescued their infant child from an overturned crib. The child was in a safe pocket under the crib's mattress.

"We lost three cars, but big deal," said Hawks.

Hawks said a house nearby didn't even have a loose shingle.

The home was torn off the foundation -- leaving a "ratty pile of lumber and insulation," a witness said. Child's toys mixed with lumber littered the area.
A Chevrolet Corsica on the bare cement pad once shaded by a garage had shifted, and a Chevrolet Silverado straddled the former wall that separated the house and the garage, with a riding lawn mower on its side crushed into the back of the pickup.

In rural Wells Township, seven miles east and one mile north of Caro, a man on Deckerville near Plain was living in a fifth wheel camper while reconstructing his home -- which a fire destroyed about two years ago, fire and emergency management officials say.

The tornado threw his car into a nearby pond and then threw the camper, with the man in it, on top of the car, leaving the camper partially submerged. The man was unharmed and able to get to shore, authorities said.

Trees and power lines littered a few miles of Deckerville through the eastern end of Tuscola County, firefighters say.

Power outages reported this morning across the region included 252 customers in Saginaw, 34 in Midland, 423 in Bay County and 238 in Genesee County without electricity.

Sheriff's deputies in Kalkaska County confirmed the 29-year-old male victim died inside his house after strong winds took the structure down around him. Deputies also said a couple trapped in another demolished house is hospitalized.

National Weather Service officials in Gaylord believe as many as four tornadoes, plus a water spout over a lake, may have touched down in Kalkaska, Cheboygan, Alpena and Mio.

At 10:52 p.m., a confirmed tornado touched down and damaged seven homes in the Shiawassee County community of Perry, the National Weather Service in Oakland County's White Lake Township reports.

The weather service also reported wind damage in Saginaw County and 1-inch hail in Midland.

"This is a very big storm," meteorologist Dave Gurney said, adding that another swath of severe weather still was passing through Jackson County early this morning. He said the storm was expected to pass through Shiawassee, Livingston and Genesee counties.

In Ingham County's Williamston, strong winds reportedly flipped a tractor-trailer truck traveling along Interstate 96, damaged nearby homes and downed several trees and power lines. Police could not provide information about the truck driver's injuries.

"It looks like the biggest damage will be in that Williamston area," said David Beachler, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids. He said weather service crews will assess the damage today and determine if tornadoes were the cause.

Authorities reported wind gusts of 55 to 71 mph between Williamston and Holland.
"This storm was very substantial," Beachler said. "I would guess that you will also see damage reports Friday morning in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio -- and maybe in Kentucky and further south."

Storms that raked the Plains and Southeast on Thursday tossed a mobile home in Missouri, killing both people inside, and spawned a tornado in Florida that sent mall shoppers and children at a day care center running for cover.